Fig. 9.

Time dependent and temperature induced self-assembly. A549 cells were treated with 1P3T-HSA a, c and Me1P3T-HSA b, d at 15 µM for 5 h and 24 h. e, f For an independent set of cells, the medium containing the samples was removed and added pure DMEM and incubated a further 24 h. Progression of free molecules (green) into aggregates (red, co-localized as yellow) can be clearly observed in a time dependent manner for both oligothiophene analogues. g–j A549 cells were pre-treated with bafilomycin and incubated with Me1P3T-HSA at 15 µM for 24 h (37 °C, 5% CO₂). The cells were stained with MitoTracker Deep Red (purple) and they are incubated at 4 °C separately for a further 2 h and imaged via confocal laser scanning microscopy. The control experiment is shown in Fig. 8i–l. Scale bar = 20 µm. The molecular form (green) of Me1P3T was locked in the mitochondria and forced to self-assemble into superstructures (red) by decreasing the ambient temperature. Co-localization of free molecules (green), assemblies (red) and MitoTracker (purple) represented in magenta/pink color